Friday, 13 June 2008
The Governing Council of Millenium Challenge Account-Armenia SNCO met at the Office of Government, presided at by GC Chairman, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.
The Council has discussed and approved a package of application and attached documents for an eighth disbursement under the program which will be submitted to the MCC for endorsement. This package includes the disbursement request and the quarterly financial report, the statements on preconditions and procurements, the working plan, as well as the final report and the performance oversight table. It has been noted that under the mentioned request, the MCA-Armenia expects to be allocated USD 14,165,030 next quarter (July - September, 2008). The per-activity breakup of expenditures under this eighth disbursement will be as follows: Rural Roads Rehabilitation - USD 10, 338,943, Irrigated Agriculture - USD 4,610,148, Monitoring and Evaluation - USD 167,178, Program Management and Oversight - USD 876,227. As of late this quarter, actual and planned expenditure (for June) were said to have totaled USD 17,076,919.
Once approved by GC Chairman, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, the request package will be sent off to the MCC for consideration.
The Council further took note of the report on civil work under the Rural Roads Rehabilitation Activity according to which the total cost of the civil work contract will rise to USD 61 million. It was noted that in case of an early approval of the 6 contracts on rehabilitation of 272.9 km-long rural roads as stipulated in the first package, it will be possible to complete these works in November, 2009 as projected.
There have also been discussed and approved the proposals presented by the Consultant regarding the revision and improvement of the system applicable to road commissioning and maintenance under Rural Roads Rehabilitation Activity of the MCA-Armenia program, the shortlist along with the invitation to be sent to eventual bidders for the development of a prospective plan for road maintenance and running repairs.
The session further discussed and approved the evaluation results of combined technical and financial proposals for consulting services on the final design and construction supervision for tertiary canals, as well as the draft contract on the purchase of consulting services on institutional strengthening of irrigation management entities under Water-to-Market activity of the Irrigated Agriculture project of the MCA-Armenia program.
Next, the Governing Council approved the amendment to the implementation agreement signed between the MCA-Armenia SNCO and the Republic of Armenia National Statistics Service, stipulating allocation of AMD 2,100,000 to the NSS for the conduct of a nationwide community survey in 2008-2009.
The Council decided to suspend the purchase of consulting services on final design and supervision of construction/rehabilitation of 7 irrigation reservoirs. The meeting acknowledged the need for revising Infrastructure Activity of the MCA-Armenia Irrigated Agriculture Project so as to develop a new program covering the most important and effective infrastructures identified as a result of the feasibility study. Revision work will be completed by this June with the final results having to be submitted to the Governing Council and the Millenium Challenge Corporation for approval.
During the meeting, the Governing Council has been informed on the activities of the MCA-Armenia Program Stakeholders' Committee (SC) inclusive of its by-laws and membership for 2007-2008.
